


The Chemical Defect

by canibecandid



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-07-14
Packaged: 2018-02-08 20:54:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1955820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canibecandid/pseuds/canibecandid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I’m makin’ uncle Sherluck’s birthday cake!" Charlotte responded, her brow deeply knit in concentration as she piped out her letters.</p>
<p>"H-H-haa-happy," She paused, licking her lips. "B-bi-r-bir…" Another pause."B-I-R-F-day." She finished joyously and added a hand full of purple sprinkles to the top of the cake. "Think he’ll like it? I- It is chemistry."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Chemical Defect

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nicolebrander](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nicolebrander/gifts).



"Before you, the white keys represent harmonic pitches, the black being a half step above or below the pitch before or after…" Sherlock rattled on to the four year old perched on his knee, Charlotte dutifully trying to follow along with her small hands perched on top of her uncle’s much larger ones. Her small brow furrowed as she tried to remember all the steps of playing the E Flat major scale, crinkling her nose when she missed the A flat and pouting at the piano. Sherlock’s laugh rumbled behind her and he guided her hands along the keys again, reciting them off one by one, which Lottie echoed.

"I’m not very good yet, Uncle Sherluck." Lottie pouted, huffing while trying to plunk through the scale once more. 

"Nonsense, you’re doing just fine Charlotte."

"Lottie, Uncle Sherluck." She corrected with a giggle as his knee bounced them through the scale. He ruffled her strawberry blonde hair, drawing her just a little bit closer to his chest.

"Bless you."

"Music lesson going okay there, Sherlock?" Mary asked from her post at the door frame, a teasing grin playing at her lips as the detective’s ears tinged pink.

"Quite. She’s a fast learner." He retorted as he rose from the piano bench, Lottie scrambling to her mother’s side.

"Uncle Sherluck taught me hows to do the Eflet scale."

"How to do the E flat scale." Sherlock corrected gently, adjusting his jacket. Lottie nodded happily before turning back to her mother with a solemn expression.

"How to do the eflet scale." She echoed, working each word slowly glancing back to her uncle who nodded encouragingly. 

"Did he now? Well, you best give him a hug good-bye before we head home, shouldn’t you? He and your father might have a case tomorrow, so you never know when the next one will be." Mary beamed and Charlotte needed no further prodding to launch herself on to Sherlock’s long legs.

"G’bye, Uncle! Catch the baddies tomorrow!" Charlotte said, squeezing his leg tightly as he ruffled her hair again and sent them out the door.

* * *

 

Lottie didn’t  _always_ have music lessons with Uncle Sherlock. Sometimes he gave her beginner chemist lessons with Auntie Molly, who always smiled prettily when she was called Auntie Molly and it seemed to please Uncle Sherlock too.

"Now, see, what we have here Lottie is a chemical reaction." Auntie Molly explained as she mixed the vinegar slowly into the dry ingredients. "Do you remember that baking soda we added in earlier? Well, it reacts with the vinegar to create air into the cake."

"To make it fluffy?" She asked excitedly, standing on her tiptoes of the step stool and peering into the bowl.

"Exactly right, Lottie." Sherlock replied, striding into the kitchen with the baking pans that he undoubtedly acquired from Nana Hudson downstairs. 

After pouring in the batter, Molly set the timer and Sherlock gathered the dishes, swiping a taste of the batter.

"Uncle Sherluck, no!" Lottie gasped in horror. "You could get salmo-salmoniel." She huffed and stopped her foot. "You shouldn’t eat raw egg, Daddy said so."

"Lottie, the average person runs into one salmonella contaminated egg every sixty years."

"And aren’t you always saying you’re above average?" Molly laughed as he froze, giving her a withered look before dropping the dishes in the sink and ridding himself of the batter.

"Very well, I see your point, Lottie."

 

* * *

 

"No! I’ve got it!" Charlotte insisted, filling the pan with the batter that she’d mixed together herself. "I’ve done it before, daddy! I promise!" John watched on with an amused grin as Charlotte focused scraping out the batter, giving an impressed hum when most of it actually ended up in the pan instead of on the floor.

"See! I told you Uncle Sherluck was giving me chemistry lessons!" She grinned, wiggling one of her loose teeth. "Daddy, will you put this in the oven."

He opened the door. “Middle rack.”

Placed it on the middle rack. “Center it, it needs to be centered, Daddy.”

Moved it ever so slightly to the right. “Okay, now we set the timer for-” Lottie checked the recipe card Molly had given her. “Seven and a half minutes, rotate the cake, and continue to bake for another seven and a half.”

"Rotate the cake?" John asked, giving her a disbelieving look and gazing at the card she held out to him. "And why is that?"

"So it cooks evenly! Even in con-" Lottie muttered the word to herself before trying again. "Even in convection ovens, sometimes the fan doesn’t move the air right."

John raised his eyebrows, but didn’t question it further, only rotating the pan when the little timer went off and then bringing it out of the oven when the final timer sounded.

"Now we wait for it to cool." He said, placing the pan on the stove top.

"Do we have to?" Lottie sighed dramatically and pulled herself into one of the tall kitchen chairs.

"Yes, and I swear, you’re getting worse than your uncle." John teased, tickling this sides of her stomach and keeping her occupied until the cake had cooled completely. 

As soon has he’d removed it from the pan and placed the icing bags in her hands, John had been kicked out of his kitchen.

"Er, John, what are you-?" Mary made a motion to the kitchen.

"She’s frosting. I was kicked out of my own kitchen by my four year old daughter." John huffed a little but gave her a wink "Get’s that from you." 

"Uh-huh, sure she does." Mary grinned, dropping a kiss on his cheek before entering the battle field. "What have you got there, Lottie?"

"I’m makin’ uncle Sherluck’s birthday cake!" Charlotte responded, her brow deeply knit in concentration as she piped out her letters.

"H-H-haa-happy," She paused, licking her lips. "B-bi-r-bir…" Another pause."B-I-R-F-day." She finished joyously and added a hand full of purple sprinkles to the top of the cake. "Think he’ll like it? I- It is chemistry."

"Oh sweets, you know he’ll love it."

One short cab ride, and a flight of stairs later, Sherlock was prying the lid off of the little pink and flowered tin. He smiled fondly as the hastily decorated cake with mismatched blue and red frosting and purple sprinkles. 

"I made it all by myself!" Charlotte boasted with a grin. "Well, daddy put it in the over and stuff. Just like you an’ auntie Molly told me to." She rotated the tin and bounced nervously on his knee. "A-and I rotated the cake to make sure the air stuff was good. Do you like it?" Her green eyes sparkled with glee.

"O-" Sherlock’s voice cracked a little as he hugged her close. "Of course, Lottie. It is the  _most_ beautiful cake I’ve ever been given. Thank you.”

  
  



End file.
